Tower sector frames are widely used in the telecommunications industry to mount antennas for communications reception. Tower sector frames have to be assembled at the point of installation before they are mounted onto the tower itself. This assembly is costly and time consuming as it requires mounting various portions of the frame to one another and bolting them together. There are a variety of antenna frames in the industry. There are many deficiencies in the prior art tower sector frames.
When a sector frame (or “sector frame mount”) is assembled, it is typically hoisted up on the tower with a rope or a cable. The sector mount is then attached to one of the three legs of the tower. Because the tower legs are at an angle to the vertical (typically about 4 degrees), a problem can be envisioned if the frames are rotated to change the azimuth point of the beam. So the first task is to get the face frames vertical despite the angle of the tower leg upon which the frames are mounted.
To address this problem, prior art devices use a set of bolt holes progressively farther from the tower to compensate for tilt. If there doesn't happen to be a bolt hole in just the right spot, a hole must be drilled. This can be difficult to do once up on the tower.
A further deficiency of the prior art is that prior art sector frame mounts are difficult to transport as they typically come in two skids on a flatbed truck. Further, prior art sector frame mounts are difficult to assemble as they can use 96 nuts just to assemble a front gate portion. A prior art sector mount can also take from one to four hours of assembly time.
Yet a further deficiency of the prior art is an inability for a prior art sector frame to adjust its pointing direction when installed.
It would thus be beneficial if an antenna frame existed that could be rapidly assembled so as to limit the amount of cost expended on an installer having to assemble the antenna frame prior to installation, as well as overcoming the other deficiencies in the prior art.